"BackSeatDriver" : 'Puppy' TeamViewer alternative - v3.24

[Mike Walsh]

Evening, all.

Now, then; coupla things.

First of all, I've packed the afore-mentioned AppImages/portable scripts as more conventional .pet packages. I'm guessing many of you will probably prefer them this way.....especially since it also gives you a proper Menu entry.

You can find the .pets at the following link. Navigate through and help yourselves to the one you want:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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I've also put together a video, in which I attempt to explain what I myself understand & know about BackSeatDriver so far. If you fancy a look at it, you can find it here:-

'Tutorial' for BackSeatDriver

Don't be too critical; my 'post-production' quality IS slowly improving as time goes by (and I learn more & more about how to use Openshot), but I've a long way to go to catch up to the likes of Sneeky Linux & The 8-bit Guy, to name but two. Bear with me..!


Mike.

[don570]

Back Seat Driver video by Mike Walsh
https://youtu.be/wJou0j3MSkI

There is a folder option that you could explain and show in action
________________________________________________

Another video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfr5xMAmmkg
_______________________________________________

[surender]

Hello
How can i use this from MAC or windows to control remote Puppy linux machine please

[Mike Walsh]

Hello
How can i use this from MAC or windows to control remote Puppy linux machine please

@ surender:-

Unfortunately, you can't. This has been written by smokey01 to run under Puppy Linux & derivatives only. I haven't used Windows for years, and I haven't looked at Macs since using a particularly balky Apple Lisa back in 1982.....all of 37 years ago. It put me off them for life.....

If you want remote control, of a Puppy box, from either Windoze or Crapple, then it's going to have to be one of these others:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=116395

.....most of which are either cross-platform in nature, or else have their equivalents on those platforms.


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Afternoon, all:-

Back Seat Driver video by Mike Walsh
https://youtu.be/wJou0j3MSkI

There is a folder option that you could explain and show in action
________________________________________________

Another video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfr5xMAmmkg
_______________________________________________

I shall be re-visiting this topic before very long, with updated builds, further 'tuition' and another video, among which the above file-transfer stuff will be explained....

Watch this space.


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Hallo again, boys & girls.

Following a slight 're-working' of the main script by Grant (better known to us all as smokey01 on the Puppy Forums), I have great pleasure in releasing new, updated versions of BackSeatDriver v3.19.....the 'Puppy' answer to - and improvement upon - TeamViewer (in a fraction of the space, and no reliance upon Qt5!)

To recap:-

BackSeatDriver is capable of:-

1) Remote desktop control
2) Real-time 'chat' messaging
3) File transfers, and
4) Real-time, two-way voice communication - courtesy of Puppy's native, built-in 'softphone'; PSIP.

This all makes it an invaluable teaching & 'assistance' tool. If a fellow Puppian has 'issues', and another Forum member feels able to assist them, they can take control of that person's desktop, show them how to go about fixing their problem, and, via PSIP, talk them through it & and explain why they're doing what they're doing at the same time.

The messaging function can be used for just chatting or, if necessary, to copy/paste and send snippets of code if required.

The file transfer function can be used to transfer across any items which the 'teacher' may feel are relevant to the 'student's' situation at hand. Multiple items can be sent, simply by putting them all into a single directory, and then 'sending' that directory. BackSeatDriver handles it all 'on-the-fly' without the need to have to pack/unzip the directory in question.

----------------------------

Having been using it regularly in recent weeks to talk to a few other Puppians (chiefly CatDude & tuxtoo), I've made a new video to demonstrate, and explain how the various functions work, since I now understand it much better. You can find it at my YouTube channel, here:-

"BackSeatDriver, fully explained..." - VIDEO

----------------------------

The app is available in two formats; either as a .pet package, or as a 'portable', self-contained ROX-App. These are, variously, available in 3 distinct varieties:

A 64-bit flavour.
A 32-bit flavour (for relatively 'modern' Puppies).
A 32-bit flavour for 'older' Puppies, which includes a number of extra, required dependencies.

Due to the need for a minimum glibc 2.17 - UPup 'Raring' and later - required by PSIP (these are Grant's own compilations of PSIP 1.42), I'm providing a 'Runtime "upgrade"' for older Puppies. This basically upgrades your Glibc, and adds several additional dependencies. Even when you've finished with BackSeatDriver and feel you no longer need it, I would advise leaving the runtime upgrade in place. Following extensive testing this last day or two, it has absolutely no adverse 'side-effects on all the older Pups I've experimented with in 'Live' mode, and will enable you to install/use newer packages than you would otherwise be able to. Its only disadvantage (regrettably) is an unavoidable increase in Puppy's size. This cannot be implemented by means of an SFS package, since an SFS will not 'overwrite' the all-important 'linker' (ld-linux.so.2), which is the one item that enables the upgrade to work.

(*shrug*)

I've had this functioning perfectly in Puppies as new as Bionicpup64 8.0, and as old as 'Lupu' 5287 (necessarily with the runtime upgrade).

(PLEASE NOTE:- One necessary 'peculiarity' for BSD (to get the file-transfer operation fully-functional - required by ncat) is the need for the correct sym-link to /usr/lib/libpcap. I can't build this into the packages due to the multitude of different versions in use across the Puppy generations.....but regardless of the version employed by your Pup, you'll need to create a sym-link for libpcap.so.0.8. Once created, file-transfer should be functional.)

------------------------------

You can find the .pets & ROX-Apps at my Google Drive, here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Navigate through and help yourselves to the version and format you're interested in. You'll also find the 'Runtime upgrade' if you require it. for an elderly Pup. (Why should the newcomers have all the fun?)

For the .pets, d/l & install as usual; you'll find the MenuEntry under Menu->Network. For the ROX-Apps, d/l, and unzip with UExtract or similar. (This is not a 'fake' extension!) Put the ROX-App anywhere you like.....and simply click to fire it up.

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If you like to keep your firewall switched on at all times (most of us, I think, prefer to do this), you will need to make exceptions for ports 1234 and 39022. These don't need to be TCP- or UDP-specific, so simply enter the port numbers in as they are.....space delimited, of course. This permits TCP and UDP traffic in both directions on those two ports.

Modern Pups have a permanent indicator of firewall status in the 'systray', notification area over to the right. For older Pups which don't have this feature built-in, I've performed a slight re-working of Rob Lane's wonderful 'firewall-state-2.1' .pet package. Functionality hasn't been touched; I've simply 'modernised' the firewall status indicator icons for the tray area, to make them a bit more obvious.

You'll also find this in the BackSeatDriver directory.

------------------------------

In a nutshell, these packages are my own tribute to Grant's genius in putting BackSeatDriver together. I assisted with some of the 'testing' around a year ago, and Grant published the full version of the main script in the January Newsletter early this year. I was so impressed with the concept of the whole thing, as well as the remarkably small size, that I've been working on these packages, on & off, for the last 8 or 9 months. It has, however, been well worth the time spent.

Credits must also go to CatDude, jamesbond (for PSIP itself), step & MochiMoppel. Everybody's contributions to the final, finished 'product' are greatly appreciated. Cheers, guys!

This is - if you like - my 'Xmas present' to the community. Try it for yourselves.....and see if you don't agree with me as to just how good it is.


Mike.

[p310don]

Thanks Mike for this.

Provided me with a workaround solution to getting this to work using an old Pup I regularly use.

Have a great xmas

[Mike Walsh]

Thanks Mike for this.

Provided me with a workaround solution to getting this to work using an old Pup I regularly use.

Have a great xmas

No worries, Don. You're very welcome.

Just out of pure curiosity, are you finding this new version to be behaving itself any better than the earlier one? I know you said not everything was acting quite the way it should....


Mike.

[p310don]

are you finding this new version to be behaving itself any better than the earlier one? I know you said not everything was acting quite the way it should....

The problems I had were the usual problems I have. There was an issue with the keyboard / chair interface unit....

I sorted that out, so it's all good now.

[Mike Walsh]

are you finding this new version to be behaving itself any better than the earlier one? I know you said not everything was acting quite the way it should....

The problems I had were the usual problems I have. There was an issue with the keyboard / chair interface unit....

I sorted that out, so it's all good now.

Ah, fair do's, mate. Sounds like you'd have had those issues regardless of how the app was scripted/built!

Anyway; enjoy. (And have a good one!)


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

(deleted - now irrelevant)

[smokey01]

Mike, I'm obviously working too fast for you.

The script has been modified two more time so I have now bumped it to 3.23.

SFR made some changes so it should work better on alternative distros to Fatdog. This is mainly related to file transfers. The nc (ncat) in Fatdog is different to the nc in many other distros like BionicPup and Dpup. Most of the time using the ncat binary I supplied is the better option, however the built-in nc in Fatdog64-810 to Fatdog64-810 works very well.

I also made a few cosmetic changes. I changed the popup message when one selects the server button. I have removed the dependency list as this is no longer required as test are done within the script to make sure they exist.

I also added SFR the the credits.

Let me know how it works for you. I will email you the script but I think we need to do some more testing before we release it.

[Mike Walsh]

Oh, hell. Now he tells me..... (*grrrr...*)

Righty-ho. Let's have a butchers at the new one, then..!

(Actually, I've got a better idea. Why don't we leave it until you've made all the changes you're likely to make - say, 6 months down the line - then let me know, hmm?)

I think I'm kinda 'jumping the gun' even building packages for it at all ATM. It LOOKS like it's in for a shed-load more development yet....


Mike.

[smokey01]

Not looking to do any more development just trying to make it more compatible amongst different puppy platforms.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, Grant.

Uh-huh. Right... Well, in that case I'll try and get some testing in at this end. I'll use the newest script, run a couple of test packages up, and see if tuxtoo and I can get the beast to behave itself!

Keep me posted vis-a-vis upgrades, please.


Mike.

[UncleScrooge]

Hi guys.

i downloaded BSD from mike's cloud, installed it and tested in a copule of environments. here are the results (happy results actually):

BionicPup64 8.0

1. I fought a bit before understanding that I forgot to turn the firewall off. dunno if it's the same for you but with the firewall actve no communication between server and client. anyway, for my purposes no big deal.
2. tested yesterday night with machine A running BionicPuP in a virtualbox on windows (bridged network access) and machine B a separate laptop, both on the same home LAN though. functionality ok, just noted a bit of a latency when moving stuff around on the desktop. opening/closing programs, typing in an editor etc. anyway, again, no big deal
3. tested today with both machines running the pup (no VBM, just the standalone bionicpup), machine A accessing the web via iphone hotspot, machine B connected to a home lan wifi router. insta-connection, again a bit sluggish in response, but just for the first 30/60 seconds, then it cranked up full speed to the point that I couldn't tell the difference between my desktop and the remote one. File transfer speed: about 80 kB /sec (5MB in one minute).

comment: so far so good. better than expected actually and I am not an easy one when it comes to remoting desktops, since I am used to teamviewer, which is a great piece of SW.

questions:

1. the download version form mike's cloud is a 3.21. smokey mentioned a 3.23 in a previous post, is i possible to get it from somewhere? (or perhaps is not ready yet)
2. what happens if, with the same credentials a third BSD goes online and clicks server (or client for that matter)? is the link between the first two sealed once it's established? or are we goign to expect some sort of conflict?

great wotk anyway!!!

Suggestion: It would be great if both client and server BSD GUIs moved to some peripheral side of the screen and/or change shape once the connection is secured (even better minimize to the tray). I know myself this would be a massive job, but...just an idea, kinda replicating the behavior of teamviewer GUI.

[Mike Walsh]

@ Uncle Scrooge:-

Do bear in mind that I'm only packaging the various components together here; I'm not the developer.....though my packaging is my personal tribute to Smokey & the team behind BackSeatDriver.

Re; v3.23:- I'd got as far as packaging v3.21 before all this global shit took off. ATM, keeping in touch with family & relatives takes precedence for me.....and they all use Skype or Zoom, and are Windoze users to a man.

BSD is Puppy-only, and is a somewhat specialised app at that. I'll get it back up-to-date at some point; I daresay it may have moved beyond v3.23 by that time.

-------------------------------------------

As far as a 3rd user 'pushing-in' is concerned, well; the easy way to prevent that happening is to change the username/password in the settings from the default one; make sure you and the person at the other end are using the same.

As for 'moving things to the side', and 'making things more like Teamviewer', you'd have to take that up with Grant (Smokey01).....though I see no reason why he would. He's not trying to compete with Teamviewer, or to attract people away from it; Pup is purely a hobbyist system when it comes down to it, and I believe this was more an exercise in 'seeing what was possible' than anything else.

--------------------------------------------

Prior to my packaging it, my understanding was that Grant and the small team who helped to develop and test BSD had always installed the components individually into their systems. I loved the concept of the thing, and wanted to make it so that all Puppians could use it easily without any messing about.

To that end, it gelled with the two principles I've always tried to adhere to:-

a) You download something, you click to install it, you click to run it, and it just 'works'.....OOTB. Better for all who are interested, and it helps to give a better impression to newcomers, of course.

b) I've always strived to provide choice in all things; it doesn't matter to me if we have 50 ways of doing the same thing.....not everybody wants to do stuff the same way, and everybody has their favourites.


Mike.

[pcplague2]

Using bionicpup32 19.03 (+21) my pc is a classmate pc N270 2Gbram running from a 8Gb ext3 partition(+2Gb swap) with screen size of 1024x600
since i'm a newbie in linux don't know how to make a bigger virtual X desktop so the config window is bigger than 600 pixel in hight and so can't make changes and hit the ok button.
In XP I have 1024x768 and as I move the mouse the screen goes up or down.
Was trying several ways to connect it to my windows pc because this one has a very small keyboard (and screen), coud not get several vlc's working, then anydesk worked once but afterwards was always diconnecting, now using dwagent (pet didn't work but packaged script did) but when it disconnects have to reboot (did not try restart X yet).
So is it possible to connect BackSeatDriver to windows?

Paulo Pestana <- All the way from Portugal

[Mike Walsh]

@ pcplague2:- Hallo, and to the 'kennels'.

Please understand; .pet packages & ROX-App 'portables' are intended specifically for Puppy use. BackSeatDriver is built to work only between one Puppy box and another. Windows would not understand them.

What exactly are you wanting to do, anyway? Share files? Talk to someone on a second machine? Control a remote desktop?


Mike.

[pcplague2]

Thanks for the fast reply.

Was just warning that BackSeatDriver options window does not fit in my screen (1024x600) so if I want to change some option (visible to me) can't click in the OK button.

I am serching for a working VNC for my distro bionicpup32 19.03 but no luck.

I am using DWservice but right now is down ..... so no go

AnyDesk is always disconnecting ....uninstalled it

What I want is Remote Desktop so that I can use my main win10 machine to control the puppy.

Why, because it has a very small keyboard and screen ... and is slower than my main machine

puppy: classmate pc N270 1.6GHz 2Gb DDR2 ram 6Gb Ext3 partition 2Gb swap

main machine: intel i5 5200 12Gb ram 500Gb disk Windows10 version 1909

Would be nice if BackSeatDriver could connect to a windows program or programs it would expand it's usefulness. Most used here (portugal) is Teams, Zoom and skype

Paulo Pestana <- All the way from Portugal